Being translated from the quiet Basque Country to the big city in Paris, from the countryside into the very heart of Paris where the streets are so busy, I had taken a 90 minute drive through snarling traffic to get there, to meet a local Parisian Deaf named Mitko, from Bulgaria.

It was much better plan to have a true Paris man to join with me in navigating through the subway maze around the city.

Mitko moved to Paris from his home country, Bulgaria when he was only 20 years old, making France his home ever since. He also has been a professional photographer for more than 35 years.

My first assignment was at the Cite des Sciences et de I’Industrie, the french version of a place like San Francisco’s California Academy of Science in the United States.

There, I met with Olivier Fidaigo, Director des publics es des activites commerciales, which translates to “Director of public business activities,” who was to be one of our guides around the building,

At first encounter, I was very impressed with his completely well-rounded persona. You will see why.

Fidaigo’s primary focus was on special accessibilities for Deaf people. He knew LSF, some ASL, plus he was pretty good at international sign language.

He has so much insight about his building, pointing out “This famous place has hired several full time Deaf employees doing the guides, researches, developing media and many more other activities around the building. Olivier admitted that positions are so rare (all filled) so those Deaf employees do everything while the hearing people have their own speciality.

Noticing the logo of two hands, I realized that it shows the symbol of sign language.

Each video display shows the different languages; French, English, Spanish, and LSF. What was even better, Fidaigo, who has done over 40 video productions with the center, and the other Deaf actors/actresses did the video presentation with voice overs, a great concept.

“It’s so fascinating to watch the group of hearing people viewing the video in sign language with the voice over feature,” I thought.

I love the idea of doing video presentations with voice overs because it shows people, when they are able to understand what we are expressing, the realization that we have the same intellectual thoughts as normal people.

I liked where they had one section for two persons in separate rooms outfitted with webcam along with visual aids in pictures of each sign and their definition, so the hearing person that has no knowledge of sign language or little knowledge can observe the signs to figure out the meaning of them so they can sign back to the other person from their end.

It truly gives a strong introduction to any person who has no background in sign language. I am looking forward to their new creations in the future, the center is very supportive with Fidaigo’s suggestions, ideas, and work.

He does travel to other countries to promote the awareness of the museum for the Deaf community. The museum is a perfect model for all museums, for the general public, not just for Deaf people, that is how remarkable it was. Check out his team’s work online at www.cite-sciences.fr, it would be possible one day for Fidaigo to bring his team to your country using the same the unique museum concept!

I thought I would only stay there for less than an hour but we ended up staying for two and a half hours, it was an amazing experience with him.

In London, it’s called the Tube. Here in Paris, we call it the Metro underground of Paris. I felt like I was in old Paris back in the days of when France had a King with all the palace guards.

At the Metro underground, we took off from the Luxembourg station, to visit the oldest Deaf school in the world. We visited so many Deaf schools in the United States, some were very old, but none as old as Institut National de Jeunes sords de Paris, founded in 1760, that L’Epree ran using his own finances, out of his own pocket.

My first impression of the Deaf school was that I could mentally picture the surroundings as an ancient city wall protecting Deaf children. I entered inside its’ gates and noticed immediately the statue of Abbe de L’Epee, also known as the Father of the Deaf.

The statue was made by a Deaf person fittingly.

Florence, one of the great LSF interpreters and repicient of a PhD degree in History, with focus on Deaf history and the native languages of Deaf people, met us and offered us a grand tour of the historic Deaf school. I was honored having her guide me because of her very rich knowledge about Deaf history. My history, and the history of countless Deaf people around the world, the history of the very existence of Deaf people, everything you want to know about Deaf education and Deaf culture.

I had a chance to visit their library museum. I saw so many books that were printed in the early 1700’s, very well preserved among other items such as small gifts and other things from the L’Epree days.

I was heartbroken to discover the Deaf lost five dark years during the French revolution just right after L’Epree’s death. It was so amazing to find that the new French Republic decided to continue Deaf education by appointing Abbe Sicard as the new school head master.

History of the Deaf began during the historic transition from L’Epree to Sicard.

With me spotting one interesting large piece of art and Florence seeing my gaze, laughed and explained that “the piece of art gives two different sides,” displaying preference of sign language over oralism, with the old French President watching a demonstration of a hearing person who strongly encouraged oralism, forbidding sign language, and L’Epree stands on the top right corner watching over them, perhaps keeping us politically correct?

I still couldn’t figure out how people preserved our native sign language and the Deaf educational values since the French Revolution, but becoming part of history was unevitable as the whole world is part of history, not excluding Deaf people. I believe we are very lucky, but we will never know the truth or reason why. I’d rather for the French to carry on the torch of Deaf education even though the French Revolution stalled some progress, as the 1880 Milan Conference did.

Deaf culture will never die, it might go through oppression and we may see Deaf people being relegated to the mainstream school education because of lack of government finances to fund a Deaf school, but it will never die as long as Deaf leaders rise to the occasion and promote sign language and the Deaf culture that embodies it. There are no “ifs” for us. From hand to hand, the signs passed on and evolved into the Deaf culture as it is today.

Visit the Deaf school Institut National de Jeunes sords de Paris’ website: www.injs-paris.fr

Mitko brought us back into the streets of Paris by suggesting that we should have a long walk from the Deaf school through the heart of Paris, the Louvre and the street shopping, the Eiffel Tower, and the many plazas that accompanies the route we walked on.

It felt like we walked over five miles within a few hours, and we even walked through the inside of the building alleys with many small shops and the oldest restaurant, which operated since 1626.

Although we were scheduled for a full media tour tomorrow, we decided to witness the Eiffel Tower at nightfall, to catch a glimpse of the majestic light show that runs every hour after sunset. Every tourist should try to visit the Eiffel Tower both during the day time and night time, to fully experience the Eiffel Tower, which has brought about an estimated 240,000,000 visitors since its grand opening in 1889.

We want to save the best for Viable France’s office premiere, I will be back with more details in the next blog!

Au Revoir!

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